The Heart Does Go On
by carrotpig
Summary: Ella Campbell moving to Domino wasn't just a move. It was a year for her to find herself, whilst making the best of the last year of high school. WARNINGS: contains OC, uses English names. OCxKaiba
1. Chapter 1

I wiped the fog from the bathroom mirror, which had appeared after a shower I had just had. I stared at my reflection. I was feeling more self conscious than a teenage girl usually would, and that's saying something. I was picking out my flaws and how I could correct them as I was combing my hair. My eyes still had dark circles from the sleepless nights I used to have. That was months ago, and I got at least 8 hours every night! I had a small breakout on my chin as well, which was quite unusual, as I didn't really suffer from breakouts.

This was undesirable to have for my first day of school. Sure, it was tomorrow, but these problems don't magically go away overnight (trust me, sleep won't get rid of these dark circles, they aren't too terrible but people do comment)

My father decided he wanted to do some more travelling before he retires. So my father and I ended up in Domino, Japan. Thousands of miles away from our home of L.A. in America. Domino was apparently 'Little America' of Japan, sort of like how Montreal is 'Little France' in Canada. People spoke English, people looked western, and if you wanted to live in Japan without the huge cultural difference, Domino is where you would go. I left behind my mother, but no real loss there.

My father managed to get a job at Kaiba Corp, run by the famous (or infamous as some would call him) Seto Kaiba. My father was quite honoured, he admired Seto Kaiba for running such a large company and being so young, my father was set in charge of people at a young age, on a much smaller scale of course, but it still reminded him of himself, and the responsibilities he had. I, on the other hand, didn't really care about Seto Kaiba. I had my eyes set on the business career (future accountant here) but I had my eyes set on banks rather than Kaiba corp., banks are financial institutions, not some stupid duel monsters company. They'd make a lot more net profit, right?

After combing and drying my hair, I decided to straighten it. My self-consciousness led me to believe that if I looked prettier, people would more likely want to be my friend. However studies in psychology also prove that people are more likely to be warmer to attractive people, so as vain and horrible as that sounded I wanted to be pretty.

I set my alarm and crawled into bed after fixing my hair, and surprisingly I fell asleep easily, ready for what was ahead of me the next day.


	2. Chapter 2

Big thanks to dancing elf and K5Rakitan for the lovely reviews, it means a lot to me.

I know this is the whole 'new girl cliché' that every story seems to incorporate, but it takes a small while to branch out and become it's own story. It gets there, I promise. However this is a repost nearly two years old, and if I were to write it now I would write it a little differently.

I awoke the next day feeling tired, even though I had gotten about 9 hours sleep. This had been a normal thing for me for a while, so I was always able to just jump out of bed. My father had already gone to work before I got up, so I was left in an empty house with about half an hour until I had to leave for school.

I did my morning routine exactly how I would have if I still lived in America. First I went to the toilet, then I washed my face and brushed my teeth, then I got dressed, then I had breakfast and lastly I did my hair and make-up.

I decided to keep my hair down, and put in a white headband with my bangs sticking out. The headband looked nice with my long, shiny hair. For my make-up I put on lots of concealer around my dark eyes (which improved just a tiny amount, as they do every night) along with a small amount of cover-up on my face, blush, lip-gloss, eye shadow, eyeliner and mascara. Even though it sounds like I was wearing a lot of make-up, I only apply a little bit to accent my facial features rather than change them.

Finally I was ready to leave the house. I knew the way to school; it was a 15-minute walk. I had done a test run 2 days before so I could know the route and know the time it took to get there. The walk was kind of eventless – I just listened to my iPod the entire walk. I did see a limousine drive past though, that was kind of weird. In L.A. in the city centre it was normal to see limos at all hours of the day, but in a quiet city like Domino you'd expect only to see limos during the afternoon or evening.

I found my way to the Domino High office and told the secretary person I was new. She asked for my name – I gave it to her. Ella Campbell. She quickly gave me my timetable, locker number and combination and I was on my way. I found my locker with ease, but the combination I had troubles with. I began to kick the door out of frustration when a boy jumped out of nowhere.

"Hi, I'm Duke Devlin, how can I be of service to you?"

Even though I was shy and in desperate need of making friends, his cockiness annoyed me. However I was probably nicer than I usually would be in this situation, so only a sarcastic reply came from my lips:

"I didn't ask for your help, but I can't get my locker combination"

"Well then," Duke started and took the papers off me "let me take a look"

"Hey, who is this?" I heard a new voice say, and I looked up to see a new group of four people. Three boys and one girl.

"Hii," I shyly said, "My name is Ella."

"It's nice to meet you, are you new?" The smallest boy politely asked.

"Yeah, new to the country, new to the city, new to the school. Thanks for your warm welcome." I smiled.

"It's always nice to meet a friendly person. I'm Tea." The girl said.

"No, you twist the lock this way!" The blonde hair guy said, who had already taken a hold of the paper with my combination on it and was fighting with Duke.

"Uh guys, I appreciate your help and all...but uh, now you know my locker combination. You can like, break in now..." I trailed off.

"Nah we wouldn't do that to ya, we're jus' being helpful" The blonde haired guy said.

"Brooklyn accent, nice. Fellow American, I'm from LA." I smiled.

"Yeah, I kinda miss NYC at times. I've been here in Domino for a long time though, and I wouldn't trade it in for the world. All my best pals are here, and that's not something you'd ever find in New York." The blonde one said.

"Joey, you forgot to introduce yourself." Tea said, reading my mind.

"Oh, right. Joey Wheeler, second best duellist in the world," Joey said, prodding his chest proudly. "That's Yugi Motou, first best duellist in the world. Then there's Tea Gardner as she said, and the other guy you haven't met is Tristan Taylor.

You've already met Duke Devlin."

"Um, hi. This is kind of overwhelming…I didn't expect to meet so many people at once." I said, scratching my head.

"Here guys, let me try" Yugi said, taking the paper from Joey and Duke who were fighting about it.

Within seconds, the locker popped open.

"I was just about to do that" Joey whined, and Duke just huffed.

I dumped my bag in my locker without taking out any books. I read that I had homeroom in room 34, and then I had double maths in room 67.

I grabbed my maths textbook and maths folder, and when I closed my locker I noticed that the gang was still there.

"What homeroom are you in?" Tea asked me.

"Um, I have Mr. Teresy in room 34" I replied.

"Oh, goody. You're in the same home room as Yugi and I" Tea said excitingly.

"Tristan, Joey and I are in the homeroom across the hall from yours." Duke told me as we started making our way towards our homerooms.

"That's...nice." I replied, not really knowing what to say.

"So yeah, if you need anything, just let me know." Duke winked.

Tristan rolled his eyes, and Joey started yelling at Duke. I later found out that Duke and Tristan fought for a long time over Joey's sister, and Tristan emerged as the winner, but was still weary of Duke. I don't know why Joey got mad at Duke for lightly flirting with me though.

All I knew though was that I had made friends at Domino. And that's all that was really important to me at that point in time.


	3. Chapter 3

Oh gosh, some of this part made me cringe. Not going to lie: Ella is a bit of a mary-sue at the beginning of this series, but as the story goes on I made her more normal. I am SO sorry, but this is now 2 years old and I've evolved a lot since then.

Instead of waking up to my alarm, I woke up to my phone receiving a text message.

I checked my phone and saw it was from my father

"Hi, I left some important work documents on the kitchen table. Kaiba Corp is just a few minutes away from your school, can you drop them off after school?"

Feeling tired and still out of it, I texted back saying yes. Noticing the time was about an hour before I usually got up, I decided to pretty myself up today.

It wasn't a random idea that came to my head. I was going to pretty myself up for a reason, a Mr. Joey Wheeler had offered to drive me to school today. Apparently his Mum had recently given him money to buy a moderate car, because his sister was apparent on staying in Domino with her brother and new friends, and his Mum gave him money for a car so he could drive Serenity places she needed to go.

But the reason why I wanted to look pretty was because I had developed a small crush on him. He was funny, cute, and seemed to care a lot about the people around him. What wasn't to like?

I took a really quick shower and used my perfumed soap to smell nice, and then stepped out. I cleaned my face and brushed my teeth, and then quickly blow-dried my hair. I gave myself soft curls and used hair spray to let them stay in place before I did my make-up.

I was happy with myself, I hadn't planned on getting this dressed up, and I had only planned on blow-drying my hair at the most.

If you're wondering how the idea of Joey driving me to school came about, it happened last night after school.

I went to Yugi's grandfather's game shop with Tea, Tristan, Joey and Yugi to meet "Gramps" 

The Game Shop was a nice small shop with a genuine feel and Gramps was a nice guy.

We were all up in Yugi's room, and the boys were telling me how Duel Monsters worked and were trying to convince me to start playing. Apparently Gramps had cooked something because the boys ran downstairs to eat, and then Tea had confronted me.

She told me she had noticed Joey and I were flirting a bit, and we kept stealing looks at each other. I didn't realise I was doing it, but when it was pointed out to me it made sense.

I was embarrassed, so I changed the topic quickly. But apparently (As Joey told me later) downstairs Tristan was having the same conversation with Joey. It was cut short when Tea and I bounded down the stairs though.

However, Tristan and Joey's conversation had given Joey enough encouragement to move things along, and he offered to drive me to school tomorrow. I accepted, and here I was now waiting for Joey to pick me up.

As I was putting my books in my bag, I heard the doorbell ring. I quickly shoved my books in, sprayed a sweet smelling perfume on me and ran downstairs with my bag.

"Hi Ella." Joey smiled as he saw me.

"Hi Joey." I smiled back, and he caught me off guard with an embrace.

The embrace lasted for at least half a minute, longer than a friendly embrace would be, and I felt butterflies in my stomach.

"Well I don't know about you, but I'm starvin' do you want to stop off at Mc Donalds for breakfast before school?" Joey asked me.

"Yeah, I could do with some McDonalds hot cakes right now." I replied, and we jumped into his car.

"Oh, by the way, you look real pretty today Ella." Joey grinned.

"Thank you Joey." I said, smiling and taking the compliment.

Joey pulled into the McDonalds and we ordered and sat down.

"Is this a date?" I asked him.

He froze, and looked down at the floor with a blush covering his cheeks.

"Joey?" I asked quietly, not happy with the reaction I had received.

"I would like it to be" He blushed.

"Yeah, me too." I smiled at him.

My second day of school was nearly as uneventful as the first. Like the first, it was comprised of class, getting to know everyone, and getting completely ignored by Kaiba in maths class. He did look at me a few times though?

During lunch I sat next to Joey, and I put my head on his shoulder without even realising it. I quickly lifted it when everyone commented, how embarrassing!

My Dad had texted me the directions to Kaiba Corp, and said just to ask for his office at the front desk.

At the desk, there was a secretary who was furiously typing away on her computer.

"Hi, um, I'm looking for Andy Campbell? He said to ask you to tell me where his office is?" I asked her.

"Kay, let me check" She said, and then typed away on her computer some more.

"Says here that Andy Campbell's office is in the accountancy floor, which is floor 3. His office is room 3E. Just take the elevator to the side of me to floor 3 and find the room number" She smiled at me.

"Thanks! Bye" I called out to her and pressed the "up" button for the elevator

When the elevator got there, some businessmen walked out, and gave me strange looks for wearing my uniform. I got into the elevator, and decided to take off my pink blazer so I wouldn't stand out so much.

Under my pink blazer was a white singlet top and I was lucky that I decided to wear a white bra that day.

I didn't exactly like wearing this singlet top though. I was lucky enough to be born with a voluptuous fixture – breasts above the normal size, a thin waist and wide hips. I gave up on embracing my figure a long time ago – it has gotten me into a lot of trouble.

I arrived on floor 3, and I exited the elevator. The hallway had 2 doors on each side, and in the distance I could see office cubicles. 3E was easy to find, and without thinking I walked in without knocking.

This was not my Dad's office.

I saw a board of men sitting in a conference room, facing a whiteboard. A presentation was being made. The person writing on the whiteboard was Mr. Seto Kaiba himself. Uh oh...

As I entered, everyone looked at me, and Kaiba gave me the biggest glare ever.

"Are you looking for your father?" He asked me coldly.

How did he remember I told him my father worked here? He's ignored me for 2 days; I didn't know he listened to me.

"Yes. My apologies sir for interrupting, but your secretary sent me to floor 3, room 3E." I bowed my head.

I knew how corporate culture worked. Suck up!

"I see. Well Miss Campbell, take a seat." Kaiba told me, and the board of men looked confused.

"Why do you want her at this meeting?" One of the men asked.

"Because, Mr. Hurst, I need to talk to her about Karen. She's been making a lot of mistakes like this and it's affecting business. I need to get the story straight so we can give Karen another warning." Kaiba replied, and then went on with his presentation.

"Now, you are grown men. You have gone through college. You are paid professional accountants, yet every time I go through Kaiba Corp's accounting reports, they are wrong. Why?" Kaiba asked.

The men grumbled out excuses, and Kaiba dimmed the lights and put on a projector showing accounting reports – ledger accounts, trial balances, profit and loss statements, cash flow statements and a balance sheet.

"What's wrong here? The balance sheet balances, yet these reports are wrong. Why?" Kaiba asked the men.

"Trick question!" one bellowed.

"It's not a trick question." I said, from the back of the room, and everyone looked at me.

I walked to the front of the room.

"The ledger accounts are wrong. You didn't add a credit for every debit, which in turn made the trial balance wrong, which means you entered the wrong figures in the cash flows, profit and loss and eventually the balance sheet." I said, pointing to the figures.

"Correct, Miss Campbell." Kaiba replied, and showed an emotion for once: shock.

"Men, take a recess. I need to talk with Miss Campbell for a few minutes." Kaiba told the men, and they quickly left.

Is this going to be good or bad?


End file.
